Law360 profiles MVP Greg Cross

2min

On December 16, 2014, Law360 profiled Venable partner Greg Cross who the publication named as a MVP last month. In selecting Cross, Law360 cited his "efforts to carve out a significant niche involving the rights and obligations of financial services companies and other participants in securitized debt structure deals."

Speaking with Law360 about his "very unique" practice, Cross said his introduction to the commercial mortgage-backed securities and special servicing space came with the $2 billion restructuring of CRIIMI MAE Inc. "[The work] grew naturally out of the CRIIMI MAE restructure, but over the course of time I developed an expertise and built an entire practice group that focuses on working with special servicers on a wide variety of issues they face," said Cross. "When the financial crisis hit things obviously got, and have remained, extremely busy."

Cross also discussed a significant victory earlier this year in a commercial loan case. Cross secured a $19.6 million judgment in a breach of warranty and representation dispute with a New York federal court ruling that commercial loans are different from residential securitized loans under New York's six-year statute of limitations. The ruling placed commercial loans outside the bounds of the 2013 landmark ACE Securities decision by the New York state Appellate Division. "The court said ACE doesn’t apply — it recognized the arguments we made, that for purposes of limitations commercial mortgages are different than residential mortgages."

Discussing his role in a $5.8 billion dispute over a loan default in the largest real estate transaction in U.S. history, Cross said, "That dispute is important because it, like an earlier litigation concerning the same asset, is focused on sorting out the rights of various lenders in a subordinated finance structure and is getting lots of attention."